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In Sweden, approximately seventy car mechanics continue to confront among the world's richest corporations – Tesla. The labor strike at the American carmaker's ten Scandinavian repair facilities has now reached its second anniversary, and there is minimal sign of a resolution.

Janis Kuzma has remained on the electric car company's picket line since October 2023.

"It has been a tough time," remarks the worker in his late thirties. With the nation's chilly winter weather arrives, it's likely to grow even tougher.

Janis devotes every start of the week alongside a fellow worker, standing outside a Tesla garage within an industrial park in Malmö. The labor organization, IF Metall, supplies shelter in the form of a portable construction vehicle, plus hot beverages and sandwiches.

But it's operations continue normally across the road, at which the workshop appears to be in full swing.

The strike concerns a matter that goes to the core of Swedish labor traditions – the right of trade unions to bargain for wages and working terms representing their workforce. This principle of collective agreement has underpinned labor dynamics in Sweden for almost one hundred years.

Today approximately 70% of Scandinavia's employees belong of a trade union, and ninety percent fall under by a collective agreement. Strikes across the nation occur infrequently.

This is a system supported by all parties. "We favor the right to negotiate freely with worker representatives and sign labor contracts," states Mattias Dahl of the Confederation of Swedish Businesses business organization.

But the electric car company has upset the apple cart. Vocal chief executive Elon Musk has said he "disagrees" with the concept of unions. "I just don't like any arrangement which creates a kind of lords and peasants situation," he informed listeners at an event in 2023. "I think the unions try to create negativity within businesses."

The automaker entered Sweden back in 2014, while the metalworkers' union has long wanted to secure a labor contract with the automaker.

"But they wouldn't reply," says Marie Nilsson, the union's president. "And we got the impression that they tried to hide away or evade discussing this with our representatives."

She says the union ultimately saw no other option than to announce industrial action, which started in late October, 2023. "Usually it's enough to issue a warning," comments the union leader. "The company typically agrees to the agreement."

However this did not happen in this case.

The striking mechanic, originally of Latvian origin, began employment with the automaker several years ago. He asserts that pay & conditions were often dependent on the whim of supervisors.

He remembers an evaluation meeting where he states he was refused a salary increase on grounds he was "failing to meet Tesla's goals". Meanwhile, a coworker was said to have been turned down for increased compensation due to he had the "wrong attitude".

However, not everyone went out in the industrial action. Tesla had some one hundred thirty mechanics working at the time the industrial action was called. The union states currently approximately seventy of its members are on strike.

The automaker has since replaced the striking workers with replacement staff, a situation there is not occurred since the era of the 1930s.

"Tesla has accomplished this [found replacement staff] publicly and systematically," states German Bender, a researcher at a research institute, a think tank financed by Scandinavian labor organizations.

"It's not against the law, this being crucial to recognize. However it goes against all established practices. Yet the company doesn't care about norms.

"They want to become convention challengers. Thus when anyone informs them, listen, you are violating a standard, they perceive that as a compliment."

The automaker's Swedish subsidiary declined requests for comment via correspondence citing "record vehicle shipments".

Indeed, the automaker has granted only one press discussion during the entire period since the strike began.

Earlier this year, the local division's "national manager, Jens Stark, told a business paper that it suited the organization more not to have a collective agreement, and rather "to work closely with employees and give workers the best possible terms".

Mr Stark denied that the choice not to enter a labor contract was one made by US leadership overseas. "Our division possesses a mandate to take our own such choices," he said.

The union is not entirely alone in this conflict. This industrial action has received backing from several of other unions.

Dockworkers in neighbouring Scandinavian nations, Nordic countries & neighboring states, decline to handle Teslas; rubbish is no longer collected from the automaker's Scandinavian locations; and newly built charging stations remain linked to the grid in the country.

Exists an example near Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where twenty chargers remain unused. But a Tesla enthusiast, the president of an owner's club the Swedish Tesla association, states vehicle owners remain unaffected by the labor dispute.

"There exists an alternative power point 10km from here," he says. "And we can continue to purchase vehicles, we can maintain our cars, we can charge our cars."

With consequences high on both sides, it is difficult to see an end to the stand-off. The union risks setting a precedent if it concedes the fundamental concept of collective agreement.

"The worry is that that would spread," states Mr Bender, "and eventually {erode